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AN 


HISTORICAL  DISCOURSE 


FOR   THE 


AMERICAN  BIBLE  SOCIETY 


m  THE  UNITED  STATES  CENTENNIAL, 


1776 — 1876. 


DELIVERED  AT   ITS  SIXTIETH  ANNIVERSARY,  IN  THE   FIFTH  AVENUE 

PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH,    NEW    YORK,    MAY    7,    I87fi,    AND    IN 

THE  ARCH  STREET  METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH, 

PHILADELPfilA.  MAY  14,  1876. 

BY  WILLIAM  J.  R.  TAYLOR,  D.  D., 

PASTOR  OF  THE  CLINTON  AVENUE  REFORMED  CHURCH,   NEWARK     N.    J. 


NEW  YORK: 
AMERICAN    BIBLE    SOCIETY, 

DISTITCTED  IN  THE  TEAR  MDCCCXVL 

1876. 


[FBOM  THE  MIN'CTES  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  ON  ANNIVERSARIES,  NOVEMBER  3d,  1875.1 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  in  the  year  187G  the  attention  of  the  nation 
will  be  largely  directed  to  its  development  and  progress  during  the 
last  century,  the  Committee  deem  it  advisable  that  a  Historical  Dis- 
course, reviewing  the  results  accomplished  through  the  agency  of  this 
Society  in  translating,  publishing,  and  circulating  the  word  of  God, 
should  be  prepared  by  some  distinguished  clergyman,  and  preached 
in  this  city  and  Philadelphia. 

Resolved,  That  Eev.  W.  J.  R.  Taylor,  D.D.,  be  invited  to  perform 
this  service. 


[FROM    TlIK    MINUTES    Of    THE    SOCIETY,    MAY    11,   1876.] 

At  the  Annual  Meeting  of  the  American  Bible  Society,  held  at 
the  Bible  House  this  day,  the  following  resolution  was  ofTered  by 
Rev.  M.  S.  Hutton,  D.D.,  and  unanimously  adopted: 

Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  this  Society  be  tendered  to  the  Rev. 
William  J.  R.  Taylor,  D.D.,  for  the  very  valuable  and  interesting 
Historical  Discourse  delivered  by  him  in  this  city  on  Sunday  evening 
last,  and  that  a  copy  be  requested  for  publication. 


THE  BIBLE 

IN  THE  LAST  ONE  HUNDRED  YEARS. 


Romans  iii.  1,  2.— "What  advantage  then  hath  the  Jew?  or  what 
profit  is  there  of  circumcision  ?  Much  every  way :  chiefly,  because 
that  uuto  them  were  committed  the  oracles  of  God." 

The  Apostle  declares  tliat  the  chief  advantage  of  the 
Jew  over  the  Gentile  was  that  to  him  were  entrusted  "  the 
oracles  of  God."  The  Eoinan  Christians  knew  how  the 
pagan  oracles  were  revered  by  the  heathen  among  whom 
they  dwelt.    It  mattered  not  how  ambijnious      „       ^    , 

'^  Pagan  Oracles. 

the  Delphic  Pythoness  might  be,  as  she  sat 
over  the  intoxicating  vapours  that  rose  from  the  fissiu:ed 
rock  on  which  her  tripod  rested,  or  how  uncertain  were  the 
responses  of  the  wily  i)riest  who  spake  for  the  gods  beneath 
the  great  oak  of  Dodona.  For  ages  no  great  thing  was 
done  without  first  consulting  the  oracle.  Princes  and 
kings  sent  their  embassies  and  gifts ;  and  costly  sacrifices 
and  implicit  devotion  attested  the  faith  of  rulers  and 
people  in  this  method  of  ascertaining  the  will  of  their 
deities. 

But  far  more  precious  to  the  Jew  were  those  "  oracles 
of  God  "  by  which  Jehovah  spake  to  the  fathers  and  their 
children  in  audible  voices,  by  Urim  and  Thummim,  from 
the  Shekinah,  at  the  burning  bush,  on  the 

The  Oracles  of 

thundering   mountain,  out  of  the  pillar   of        God. 

cloud   and    of  fire,  and  from   the   Holy  of 

holies.    Greater  still  were  those  written  revelations,  "the 


6  HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE. 

Law,  the  Prophets,  and  the  Psahiis,"  which  made  them 
"first  among  the  nations,"  the  covenant  people,  the  pos- 
sessors of  the  only  true  religion,  the  worshippers  of  the 
only  true  God,  and  the  trustees  of  the  inspired  word  for 
themselves  and  for  the  world.  That  trust  they  have  faith- 
fully discharged,  and  for  it  the  world  is  their  everlasting- 
debtor. 

But  "  God,  who  at  sundry  times  and  in  divers  manners 
spake  in  times  ijast  unto  the  fathers  by  the  prophets,  hath 
in  these  last  days  spoken  unto  us  by  his  Son."  Ai)Ostles 
and  Evangelists  have  given  us  "the  words  of  the  Lord 
Jesus,"  and  the  Holy  Ghost  has  sent  forth  in  imi)erishable 
forms  that  New  Testament  which  completes  "the  oracles 
of  God." 

They  speak  to  us  of  Him  and  for  Him ;  they  teach  us 
how  to  speak  to  Him  in  the  endless  dialogue  between  God 
and  man.  They  speak  in  language  so  simple,  in  revela- 
tions so  many  and  in  thoughts  so  great  that  "  he  may  run 
that  readeth."  Whatever  may  be  obscure,  however  deep 
"  the  mystery  of  God,"  no  faltering  voices  leave  us  uncer- 
tain as  to  our  duty  and  our  destiny,  our  ruin  and  our 
redemption.  The  Bible  carries  with  it  the  promise  of  the 
power  and  "demonstration  of  the  Spirit."  It  is  "the  reve- 
lation of  Jesus  Christ"  by  the  Holy  Comforter.  It  is  the 
inspiration  of  the  Eternal  Spirit  acting  uiDon  human  spirits 
in  all  ages,  lands,  and  races.  It  is  the  written  word,  filled 
with  "the  thoughts  of  God"  towards  us,  enlightening, 
renewing,  reforming,  purifying,  saving  men,  and  so  lifting 
up  the  nations  into  the  plane  of  the  highest  Christian 
civilization.  It  is  this  commingling  of  the  divine  and  the 
human  in  the  written  word  and  in  Christ  Jesus,  "  the  Word 
[who]  was  made  flesh  and  dwelt  among  us,"  which  makes 
the  whole  Bible  the  Book  for  mankind.  And  so,  what  was 
once  the  possession  of  a  single  little  nation  on  the  eastern 
coast  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  "has  gone  out  into  all 
the  earth"  from  that  ancient  centre  of  population  and 
of  power,  until  now  many  nations  have  this  treasure  in 
their  own  keeping. 


HISTORICAL    DISCOURSE.  7 

In  this  Centennial  year  of  our  history  as  a  separate  and 
indepe^ideut  nationality,  and  amid  the  many  contrasts 
of  our  Interuational  Exhibition,  thoughtful  men  may  well 
ask,  "  What  advantage  then  hath  "  the  Amer- 
ican? "or  what  profit  is  there"  in  constitu-  ^'^^''pS/'''^ 
tional  government  and  in  republican  insti- 
tutions ?  If  this  Centenary  is  to  end  only  in  the'  proud 
boastings  of  self-complacent  political  atheism,  our  ruin 
may  be  as  near  as  that  of  the  doomed  king,  when  he 
said,  "Is  not  this  great  Babylon  which  I  have  built?" 
But  if  we  are  to  be  lifted  above  the  shame  which  has 
dimmed  our  glory,  and  to  find  out  "a  more  excellent 
way,"  we  must  follow  those  principles  and  providences 
by  which  God  has  made  us  one  people  and  has  set  us  to 
work  out  the  vast  experiments  of  freedom,  law,  and  faith. 
With  a  continent  for  our  domain,  we  are  living  upon  our 
inheritance  from  past  ages  and  from  lands  beyond  the  seas. 
And  that  we  may  know  our  "time  of  visitation,"  let  us 
consult  "the  oracles  of  God."  I  therefore  ask  you  to 
consider 

OUR  TREASURE  AND  OUR  TRUST, 

hoping  to  show  you  how  completely  the  Bible,  as  a 
l)riceless  gift  and  as  a  sacred  deposit,  is  inwrought  with 
our  national  origin,  history,  character,  and  destiny;  and 
how  conspicuous  is  the  place  to  which  it  is  entitled  amid 
the  memorials  of  our  Centennial  celebration. 

I.  OUR  TREASURE. 

Our  chief  treasure  is  not  the  gold  of  California,  nor 
the  silver  of  Nevada,  nor  the  vast  coal  measures  that  belt 
the  States,  nor  all  of  our  material  wealth,  nor  yet  the 
enterprise  of  our  people,  the  commerce  of  our  waters,  the 
traffic  of  our  railways,  the  harvests  of  our  soil,  the  manu- 
factures of  industry  and  skill,  and  the  colossal  fortunes  of 
our  millionaires.  The  red  men  once  owned  more  of  this 
continent  than  we  do  now.  Mexico  and  Peru  are  richer 
in  the  precious  metals  than  our  mining  regions.     Brazil 


8  HISTORICAL    DISCOURSE. 

equals  if  she  does  not  exceed  us  in  territory.  What  has 
made  us  to  differ?  "What  advantage,  then,"  have  we? 
"Much,  every  way:  chiefly,  because  that  unto  us  were 
committed  the  oracles  of  God."  That  is  the  answer  of 
our  history  and  liberty.  It  were  as  easy  to  tear  up  Mount 
Sinai  from  its  wilderness,  or  to  take  out  the  laws  of  Moses 
from  the  civil  polity  of  the  Hebrews,  or  to  dissever  the 
temple  from  their  history,  as  to  eliminate  the  Bible  from 
our  American  annals,  our  historical  character,  and  our 
national  distinction. 

How    did    we    get    this    Treasure?     Our   forefathers 
brought  it  with  their  families,  schools,  and  churches.    It 

came  with  Puritan  and  Cavalier,  with  Hu- 
^Trfc'amr'"     gucuot,  Walloou,  and  Hollander ;  with  Swede 

and  Dane  and  German.  It  came  in  merchant 
vessels  and  in  ships-of-war,  with  discoverers  and  adventur- 
ers, with  soldiers  and  sailors,  with  colonists,  travellers,  and 
traders.  It  came  with  Sir  Walter  Ealeigh,  and  Governor 
Winslow,  and  Hendrick  Hudson,  and  Peter  Stuyvesant, 
and  William  Penn,  and  Roger  Williams.  It  came  with  the 
Independent,  the  Presbyterian,  the  Quaker,  the  BajDtist, 
the  Church  of  England,  and  the  Reformed  Church  of  the 
Continent.  It  came  with  liberty  and  law,  with  the  love  of 
God  and  the  love  of  man,  and  with  the  compact  made  by 
the  Pilgrims  in  the  cabin  of  the  Mayflower — "For  the 
glory  of  God  and  the  advancement  of  the  Christian  faith, 
and  honour  of  their  king  and  country,  to  plant  the  first 
colony."  It  brought  with  it  that  first,  that  typical  Ameri- 
can Sabbath  which  those  colonists  kept  so  holy  on  the 
wintry  coast,  before  they  had  a  hut  or  a  tent  in  which 
to  dwell.    It  came  when 

"  Amid  the  storm  Ihey  sang, 

And  the  stars  heard,  and  the  sea. 
And  the  sounding  aisles  of  the  dim  woods  rang 
With  the  anthem  of  the  free." 

It  was  their  only  rule  of  faith,  the  inspiration  of  their 
freedom,  the  principle  of  their  laws,  the  foundation  of  their 
local  governments,  the  one  book  which  shaped  their  char- 


HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE.  9 

acter,  their  worship,  and  their  citizenship.  It  had  produced 
the  lieformation ;  it  had  revolutionized  Europe ;  it  had 
kindled  the  flames  of  civil  and  religious  liberty ;  and,  more 
than  any  other  thing,  it  sent  hither  those  who  "  sought  a 
faith's  pure  shrine,"  and  in  that  faith  laid  the  foundations 
of  this  Christian  republic. 

When  did  it  come  ?  The  Protestant  Anglo-Saxon  colo- 
nization of  this  land  began  just  after  the 
present  Authorized  Version  of  our  English  ^^'"^^e^^^^Jf '^" 
Bible  had  been  published.  The  Continental 
immigrants  brought  with  them  those  versions  of  the  sacred 
Scriptures  with  which  the  Eeformatiou  had  made  its  way 
against  the  empire  of  Charles  the  Fifth,  the  tyranny  of  the 
"Grand  Monarque,"  through  the  blood  of  St.  Bartholo- 
mew's day,  and  the  revolt  of  the  Netherlands  against 
Philip  the  Second  and  the  Inquisition.  Then  and  so  came 
to  us  "the  glorious  gospel  of  the  blessed  God,"  red-lettered 
with  the  blood  of  the  witnesses  and  illuminated  by  the 
fires  of  persecution.  It  came,  too,  while  Britain  was  yet 
aglow  with  the  splendors  of  that  golden  age  which  gave 
us  Shakspeare,  Bacon,  and  Milton,  and  which  fixed  the 
standard  of  our  English  tongue  by  our  English  Bible. 

Yet  it  is  a  memorable  fact,  that  every  Bible  in  the 
English  language  which  America  possessed  before  the 
revolutionary  war,  had  been  brought  across  the  Atlantic 
ocean.  John  Eliot  had  indeed  translated  the  Dependence  on 
entire  Scriptures  into  the  language  of  the  the  Mother 
Massachusetts  Indians,  and  published  editions  Country. 
in  1GG3  and  1685,  and  three  editions  of  Martin  Luther's  ver- 
sion had  been  published  (1743, 1762, 1776,)  at  German  town, 
near  Philadelphia;  but  so  oppressive  was  the  monopoly 
which  the  government  of  England  held  over  the  word  of 
God,  that  it  never  did  give  any  authority  to  publish  it  out- 
side of  her  seagirt  isle.  As  early  as  1688,  William  Brad- 
ford, of  Philadelphia,  issued  proposals  to  publish  "  a  large 
house  Bible,"  but  it  never  was  done.  The  first  English 
Bible  which  appeared  on  this  side  of  the  ocean  was 
published  by  Eobert  Aitken  of  Philadelphia,  in  1782,  his 


10  HISTORICAL    DISCOURSE. 

proposals  for  its  issue  being  dated  in  1781,  and  its  actual 
l^ublication  being  after  the  battle  of  Yorktown  and  before 
the  peace  of  1783.  It  was  our  Biblical  Declaration  of 
The  Word  of  Independence — one  of  the  firstfruits  of  the 
God  no  longer  Ecvolutiou — and  bcars  upon  its  fly-leaf  the 
Bound.  resolution  by  which  the  first  Congress,  offici- 

ally, "recommended  this  edition  of  the  Bible  to  the 
inhabitants  of  the  United  States."  The  same  hands  that 
broke  the  fetters  of  the  colonies  struck  off  the  chains  from 
the  Bible,  and  from  that  day  "  the  word  of  God  has  not 
been  bound  "  in  these  United  States.  * 

*  We  insert  the  action  of  Congress,  as  a  memorial  of  this  Centennial 
period : — 

By  the  United  States,  in  Congress  Assembled  : 

September  12,  1782. 

The  Committee  to  whom  was  referred  a  Memorial  of  Robert  Aitken, 
printer,  dated  21st  January,  1781,  respecting  an  edition  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  report :  That  Mr.  Aitken  has,  at  a  great  exj)ense,  now 
finished  an  American  edition  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  in  English  ;  that 
the  Committee  have  from  time  to  time  attended  to  his  progress  in  the 
work ;  that  they  also  recommended  it  to  the  two  chaplains  of  Con- 
gress to  examine  and  give  their  opinion  of  the  execution,  who  have 
accordingly  rei)orted  thereon ;  the  recommendation  and  report  being 
as  follows : 

Philadelphia,  1st  September,  1782. 
Beverend  Gentlemen: 

Our  knowledge  of  your  piety  and  public  spirit  leads  us  without 
apology  to  recommend  to  your  particular  attention  the  edition  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures  publishing  by  Mr.  Aitken.  He  undertook  this  expen- 
sive work  at  a  time  when,  from  the  circumstances  of  the  war,  an 
English  edition  of  the  Bible  could  not  be  imported,  nor  any  oi^inion 
formed  how  long  the  obstruction  might  continue.  On  this  account 
particularly,  he  desires  applause  and  encouragement.  We  therefore 
wish  you,  reverend  gentlemen,  to  examine  the  execution  of  the  work, 
and  if  approved,  to  give  it  the  sanction  of  your  judgment  and  the 
weight  of  your  recommendation. 

We  are,  with  very  great  respect,  your  most  obedient  humble 
servants, 

[Signed,]  James  Duane,  Chairman, 

in  behalf  of  a  Committee  of  Congress 

on  Mr.  Aitken's  Memorial. 

Reverend  Doctor  White  and  Eeverend  Mr.  Duffield, 

Chaplains  of  the  United  States  in  Congress  Assembled. 


HISTORICAL    DISCOURSE.  11 

But  previous  to  this,  in  1777,  upon  the  memorial  of  Dr. 
Patrick  AlHson,  a  distinguished  Presbyterian  minister  of 
Baltimore,  to  the  Continental  Congress,  then  in  session  in 
that  city,  a  recommendation  was  reported  by 
a,  committee  of  that  body,  to  import  twenty      "^^congreL.*^^ 
thousand  Bibles  from  Holland,  Scotland,  or 
elsewhere,  to  supply  the  public  destitution  of  the  Scriptures 
occasioned  by  the  war.    It  is  not  certain  that  this  recom- 
mendation was  ever  carried  into  effect.     But  these  two 
interesting  facts  in  the  biblical  history  of  that  period  show 
how  great  a  hold  the  Scriptures  had  upon  the  hearts  of 
the  people  and  upon  their  reijresentatives  during  the  prog- 
ress and  at   the  close  of  the  struggle  for  independence. 
Here  the  action  of  the  government  properly  ceased,  and 

Report. 
Gentlemen : 

Agreeably  to  your  desire,  we  have  paid  attention  to  Mr,  Eobert 
Aitken's  impression  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ment. Having  selected  and  examined  a  variety  of  passages  through- 
out the  work,  we  are  of  opinion  that  it  is  executed  with  great  accu- 
racy as  to  the  sense,  and  with  as  few  grammatical  and  typographical 
errors  as  could  be  expected  in  an  undertaking  of  such  magnitude. 
Being  ourselves  witnesses  of  the  demand  for  this  invaluable  book,  we 
rejoice  in  the  present  prospect  of  a  supply ;  hoping  that  it  will  prove  as 
advantageous  as  it  is  honourable  to  the  gentleman  who  has  exerted 
himself  to  furnish  it  at  the  evident  risk  of  private  fortune. 

We  are,  gentlemen,  your  very  respectful  and  humble  servants, 

[Signed,]  William  White, 

George  Duffield. 
Philadelphia,  Sept.  10,  1782. 

Honourable  James  Duane,  Esquire,  Chairman, 

and  the  other  honourable  gentlemen  of  the  Committee  of 

Congress  on  Mr.  Aitken's  Memorial. 

Whereupon,  Resolved,  That  the  United  States  in  Congress  assem- 
bled, highly  approve  the  pious  and  laudable  undertaking  of  Mr. 
Aitken,  as  subservient  to  the  interest  of  religion,  as  well  as  an 
instance  of  the  progress  of  arts  in  this  country,  and  being  satisfied 
from  the  above  report  of  his  care  and  accuracy  in  the  execution  of 
the  work,  they  recommend  this  edition  of  the  Bible  to  the  inhabit- 
ants of  the  United  States,  and  hereby  authorize  him  to  publish  thiB 
recommendation  in  the  manner  he  shall  think  proper. 

Chas.  Thomson,  Secretary/. 


12  HISTORICAL    DISCOURSE. 

the  circulation  of  tlie  Scriptures  was  left  entirely  to  the 
people. 

When  a  pagan  ambassador  asked  Queen  Victoria  the 
reason  of  the  pre-eminence  of  her  realm  over  that  of  his 
monarch,  she  gave  him  a  Bible,  saying,  "This  is  the 
secret  of  Britain's  greatness."  Our  International  Exposi- 
tion would  be  criminally  incomplete,  did  it 
Exposition!^°  uot  includc  the  Holy  Bible,  in  its  many  lan- 
guages and  forms.  In  those  vast  buildings 
there  is  nothing  so  great,  nothing  so  pure,  nothing  so 
creative,  nothing  so  preservative,  nothing  so  inspiring, 
nothing  so  enduring,  as  this  Book  of  books.  Those 
multitudes  of  material  things  are  "  of  the  earth,  earthy  " — 
this  is  from  heaven ;  those  are  the  productions  of  human 
genius  and  skill — this  is  from  God.  Those  things  are 
made — this  is  revealed,  inspired,  supernatural,  miracu- 
lous. Those  things  are  the  pride  of  nations — this  is  their 
salvation.  There  "the  ends  of  the  earth"  come  together, 
bringing  from  "the  gorgeous  East,"  "the  wealth  of 
Ormus  or  of  Ind,"  "  barbaric  i)earl  and  gold,"  and  treas- 
ures from  almost  every  land  and  clime.  Here,  "  more 
precious  than  fine  gold "  are  the  laws  of  God,  the  visions 
of  prophecy,  the  sweet  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  revela- 
tions of  "  the  new  heavens  and  the  new  earth ; "  and  all 
printed  in  type  fitly  named  of  "  agate  "  and  "  pearl "  and 
"ruby"  and  "diamond."  Merely  as  specimens  of  skill 
in  the  art  of  book-making,  and  as  illustrations  of  the 
learning  and  the  linguistic  advances  of  our  times,  in  con- 
trast with  the  old  black-letter  tomes  and  the  illuminated 
manuscripts  of  ancient  days,  those  Bibles,  standing  in  the 
centre  of  the  department  assigned  to  the  literature  of  the 
world,  declare  their  relation  to  all  of  the  best  achievements 
of  the  human  mind.  But  surrounded  as  they  are  by  the 
almost  endless  varieties  of  the  material  products  of  modern 
civilization,  they  remind  us  that  our  greatness  lies  not 
merely  in  the  arts  and  sciences  and  industries  of  the  age, 
not  in  the  outward  forms  of  our  civic  advancement,  not 
even  in  the  national  prowess  and  progress  which  are  so 


HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE.  13 

splendidly  illustrated  by  the  governmeut  of  the  United 
States  iu  its  great  building  which  shows  to  the  world 
that 

"Peace  hath  her  victories 
Not  less  renowned  than  war : " — 

but  in  the  providence  and  goodness  of  Him  whose  "  gentle- 
ness hath  made  us  great."  Apart  from  this,  all  else  in  that 
wonder-land  is  but  the  vain  show  of  our  mortal  state, 
"  the  fashion  of  the  world  which  passeth  away."  But  for 
that  Book,  this  greatest  of  the  world's  Exhibitions  would 
have  been  impossible.  It  could  not  take  place  in  Mexico, 
nor  in  Asia,  nor  in  any  other  country  that  has  not  a  high 
Christian  civilization  and  an  open  Bible,  and  that  freedom 
which  gives  full  scope  to  the  "wisdom"  which  "dwells 
with  prudence,  and  findeth  out  knowledge  of  witty  inven- 
tions."— (Prov.  viii.  12.)  Better  still,  here  is  the  inspira- 
tion of 

"  That  Shepherd  who  first  taught  the  chosen  seed, 
In  the  beginning,  how  the  heavens  and  earth 
Rose  out  of  chaos." 

And  above  all  the  noises  of  that  complicated  machinery, 
and  the  discords  of  those  human  tongues,  we  hear  the 
rippling  music  of 

"  Siloa's  brook  that  flowed 
Fast  by  the  oracle  of  God." 

II.   OUR  TRUST. 

What  have  we  done  with  it  for  our  own  country  and 
for  the  world  I 

We  may  answer  this  question  chiefly  by  the  contrasts 
of  the  last  sixty  and  one  hundred  years — periods  which 
respectively  cover  the  history  of  the  American  Bible  So- 
ciety and  of  the  United  States.    I  shall  speak 

First  ; — Of  the  Bible  in  our  own  country. 

Sixty  years  ago,  sixty  American  gentlemen,  represent- 
ing thirty-five  local  Bible  societies  in  eleven  States  and  the 


14  HISTORICAL    DISCOURSE. 

District  of  Columbia,  met  in  convention,  in  the  consistory 
May  8-11  1816      I'oom  of  the  olcl  Reformed  Dutch  Church  in 

Garden  Street,  New  York,  and  after  careful 
deliberation,  unanimously  adojjted  the  constitution  of  the 
American  Bible  Society,  and  issued  it  with  a  i30werful 
"Address  to  the  People  of  the  United  States."  The 
idea  of  forming  such  an  organization  was  doubtless 
caught  from  the  formation  of  the  British  and  Foreign 
Bible  Society,  in  1804.  It  gradually  extended  itself  to  the 
minds  of  a  few  Christian  men.    It  was  suggested  in  1806 

and   1807 ;    but    no    actual   movement  was 

^"  ety-iso?'"'"  ^^^^  ^^*^^  "^  December,  1808,  the  first  Bible 
society  on  this  continent  was  formed  at  Phil- 
adelphia, taking  first  the  name  of  that  city  and  afterward 
of  Pennsylvania.  Connecticut  followed  this  good  example 
in  May,  1809 ;  Massachusetts  in  July ;  and  New  Jersey,  at 
Princeton,  in  the  fall  of  the  same  j^ear;  and  New  York 
City  in  1810.  In  1816  there  were  some  fifty  or  sixty  socie- 
ties scattered  over  the  States,  but  they  worked  separately 
and  alone,  and  with  many  hindrances  in  their  limited 
spheres,  with  no  central  power,  and  no  visible  bond  of 
union  except  the  Bible  itself. 

But,  as  in  the  history  of  great  discoveries,  like  that  of 
the  planet  Neptune,  and  of  great  inventions,  like  the 
steam  engine  and  the  electric  telegraph,  so  in  great 
benevolent  and  religious  movements,  it  often  appears  that 
the  same  essential  principles,  ends,  and  methods  were 
simultaneously  working  in  the  minds  of  different  men 
unbeknown  to  each  other.  It  is  God's  way  of  preparing 
the  world  and  the  church  for  their  best  things.  Thus 
there  is  good  evidence  to  prove  that  the 
^  er  NeedS"^^  necessity  of  a  national  society  for  publishing 
and  circulating  the  word  of  God  was  moving 
the  souls  of  a  few  good  men  like  the  celebrated  Samuel  J. 
Mills  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  Jedediah  Morse,  and  that  eminent 
statesman  Dr.  Elias  Boudinot,  for  several  years  prior  to 
the  organization  of  the  American  Bible  Society.  But  the 
project  was  doubted  and  discouraged  by  some  and  rejected 


HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE.  15 

by  otliers,  until  public  sentiment  was  concentrated  in  the 
Convention  of  181G,  which  was  called  by  the  venerable 
President  of  the  Bible  Society  of  New  Jersey,  Dr.  Boudi- 
not,  who,  as  the  President  of  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  in  1783,  had  signed  the  treaty  of  peace  with  Great 
Britain,  which  secured  the  independence  of  this  nation. 
It  was,  indeed,  fitting  that  this  illustrious  man  should 
become  the  instrument  of  divine  Providence  for  founding 
this  institution,  after  so  many  years  of  preparation.  Sick- 
ness alone  prevented  his  presence  at  the  Convention  which 
he  had  called,  but  the  Society  honoured  itself  by  honouring 
him,  by  its  unanimous  voice,  as  its  first  President,  an  office 
which  he  dignified  and  blessed  until  his  death,  which 
occurred  five  ^rears  later. 

In  that  Convention  there  were  revolutionary  patriots, 
soldiers,  and  statesmen ;  judges,  lawyers, 
merchants,  authors,  clergymen;  presidents  ^ofMavTisie" 
and  professors  of  colleges  and  theological 
seminaries ;  the  most  eminent  surgeon  of  his  generation ; 
and  plain,  untitled  citizens.  There  were  Presbyterians, 
Episcoi)alians,  Baptists,  Eeformed  Dutch,  Congregational- 
ists,  Friends;  and  Dr.  Morse,  who  was  a  member,  says, 
"Eoman  Catholics  among  the  rest."*  But  among  them 
all  there  was  not  a  dissenting  voice;  and  so  great  was 
the  Christian  harmony  and  love,  that  "some  of  those 
least  affected  could  not  help  crying  out,  'This  is  none 
other  than  the  work  of  God.'"  Like  the  union  of  these 
States,  it  was  not  of  man,  but  of  God.  It  was  not  of 
the  churches,  but  it  was  the  irresistible  overflow  of  the 
hearts  of  noble  minded  Christian  men,  whom  God  had 
trained  and  prepared  and  drawn  together  by  his  word  and 
Spirit  to  begin  on  this  continent  that  new  era  of  biblical 
diflfusion  which  then  first  among  us  took  national  propor- 
tions for  our  country  and  the  world.  It  was  not  an  acci- 
dent ;  it  was  a  new  birth.  It  was  not  made.  It  was  like 
that  "vine  out  of  Egypt"  for  which  God  cast  out  the- 

*  See  Bible  Society  Record,  January  21, 1875,  Vol.  xx.,  No.  1,  p.  2. 


16  HISTOBICAL    DISCOURSE. 

heathen  "and  planted  it.  He  prepared  room  before  it,  and 
caused  it  to  take  deep  root,  and  it  filled  the  land.  The 
hills  were  covered  with  the  shadow  of  it,  and  the  boughs 
thereof  were  like  the  goodly  cedars." — (Psalm  Ixxx.  8-10.) 

Now  mark  some  of  the  instructive  contrasts  ivMcli  are 
illustrated  l)y  the  work  of  this  Society,  for,  as  it  has  been 
truly  said,  "  There  are  no  contrasts  like  those  of 
Christianity." 

Sixty  years  ago  the  population  of  the  United  States 

was    only   eight   millions ;    the    country  was    exhausted 

by  the  second  war  with  Great  Britain ;  west 

The  Former  Days.     \      ,,  a  ,,      ,        .  -.       ,,  ^-i  .         ,-, 

of  the  Alleghanies  and  the  Ohio  there 
was  but  a  sparse  settlement,  and  beyond  the  Mississippi 
there  lay  an  almost  unbroken  wilderness.  Excepting  the 
American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions, 
which  was  formed  in  1810,  there  was  no  national  Christian 
institution  which  offered  a  basis  for  union  and  co-opera- 
tion for  the  work  of  home  and  foreign  evangelization. 
Each  religious  denomination  took  its  own  way  amid  many 
diflSculties.  A.11  of  our  great  benevolent  Christian  enter- 
prises date  from  a  later  period.  Shortly  after  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  first  depot  of  this  Society  in  a  small  room 
in  Hanover  Street,  New  York,  near  the  present  custom- 
house, a  member  of  the  Board  astonished  his  friend  by 
exclaiming,  "  I  verily  believe  that  I  shall  live  to  see  all  the 
shelves  in  this  room  filled  with  Bibles  and  Testaments." 
He  lived  a  half  century  longer,  to  see  our  great  Bible 
House  in  the  centre  of  the  metropolis,  sending  forth 
Bibles  and  Testaments  by  the  million,  and  sheltering 
within  its  walls  the  representatives  of  many  of  the  great 
charities  and  evangelizing  institutions  which  have  sprung 
up  around  it — a  proper  type  of  the  Book  and  of  the  work 
for  which  it  exists. 

One  hundred  years  ago  the  cheapest  English  Bible  in 
this  country  cost  not  less  than  two  dollars,  and  sixty  years 
^.  «  .  ,^..,     ago  the  price  was  little  less,  and  the  styles 

TheCostof  Bibles.      *,.^^,,,,  '  ,«         ,''  „ 

and  sizes  of  the  books  were  poorly  fitted  for 
general  circulation.    Now  the  Bible  is  the  cheapest  of 


HISTORICAL    DISCOURSE.  17 

books,  and  of  every  form  that  necessity,  convenience,  and 
taste  may  demand. 

At  the  beginning'  of  the  century  the  whole  number  of 
Bibles  in  the  world  was  not  much  more  than 
four  millions;  and  this  included  the  book  in 
all  lands  and  languages  since  the  invention  of  the  art  of 
printing.  Kow  the  number  of  editions  is  past  counting, 
and  there  are  more  copies  of  it  in  the  English  language 
than  in  all  other  human  tongues  together.  Bible  societies 
alone  have  published  over  one  hundred  and  forty-one 
millions  of  volumes  since  ISO-i,  of  which  the  British  and 
Foreign  Bible  Society,  in  its  seventy-two  years,  have 
issued  seventy-six  millions  four  hundred  thousand  copies, 
and  the  American  Bible  Society,  in  its  threescore  years, 
thirty-three  millions,  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  thou- 
sand, seven  hundred  and  thirty-six  copies.  The  total 
issues  of  these  two  societies  alone  have  been  one  hundred 
and  nine  millions,  five  hundred  and  twenty-five  thousand, 
seven  hundred  and  thirty-six  volumes  of  the  word  of  God. 

In  the  first  year  of  our  Society's  existence  its  receipts 
were  $37,799  35,  which  included  the  princely  gift  of 
$10,000  by  its  great  founder,  the  first  President.  The 
aggregate  sum  of  its  receipts  from  all  sources  has  been 
$17,229,142  31. 

Before  its  organization,  in  1816,  the  distribution  of 
the  Scriptures  throughout  our  country  had 
been  made  at  first  by  individuals,  families,  ^"'^^o^bS""'' 
ministers,  and  churches.  Then  followed  the 
active  efforts  of  the  few  local  Bible  societies  whose  forma- 
tion we  have  noticed,  and  whose  efforts  developed  the 
destitutions  which  they  could  only  partially  supply. 

The  most  remarkable  work  of  this  kind  of  which  record 
is  made,  was  done  by  the  llev.  Messrs.  Samuel  J.  Mills 
and  Daniel  Smith,  in  the  years  1814  and  1815,  in  the  val- 
leys of  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi,  from  Pittsburg  to  New 
Orleans  and  other  parts  of  Louisiana.  It  seems  strange  at 
this  day  to  read  from  their  report  how  the  door  of  their 
dwelling  in  New  Orleans,  "  on  a  Sabbath  day,  from  ten 

2 


18  IIISTOBICAL    DISCOUESE. 

to  one  o'clock,  was  thronged  with  from  fifty  to  one  hun- 
dred iDcrsons,  of  all  ages  and  colours,  and  literally  clam- 
orous in  their  solicitations  for  the  Testament.  Such  an 
assembly  for  such  a  iDurpose  was  never  before  witnessed 
in  Louisiana."  Thousands  of  French  Testaments  were 
circulated  by  these  pioneer  Bible  men  among  the  Eoman 
Catholics  in  the  French  settlements  in  that  great  territory. 
I  have  specified  this  noble  voluntary  mission  because  it 
fired  the  soul  of  the  sainted  Mills  with  his  ceaseless  zeal 
for  the  formation  of  a  national  Bible  society,  and  wa5  one 
of  the  iDrovidential  prei^arations  which  we  have  noticed  for 
the  establishment  of  this  institution. 

Threescore  years  ago,  when  the  tides  of  foreign  immi- 
gration were  setting  in  larger  billows  upon,  our  shores,  there 

was  no  i)rovision  for  furnishing  the  word 
^mmivrants.'       ^^  ^^^  *^  *^®  iucomiug  straugcrs.     But  for 

many  years  past  scarcely  a  vessel  has  left 
or  entered  our  i^orts  to  whose  officers,  crew,  and  passen- 
gers the  Bible  has  not  been  offered  in  their  native  tongues; 
and  it  has  followed  the  pilgrims  wherever  they  have 
settled  or  roved. 

In  those  early  days,  when  Sabbath  schools  were  new 
and  the  public  school   system  was   in   its  infancy,   few 

of  the  children  of  America  possessed  any 
^^Schoois.^°'       Bibles    or   Testaments    of   their   own.     But 

education  has  j)roduced  a  ceaseless  demand 
for  School  Bibles  and  School  Testaments  for  reading, 
study,  rewards,  and  home  use.  The  Bible,  more  than  any 
other  thing,  has  always  awakened  a  thirst  for  knowl- 
edge and  has  made  education  a  public  necessity;  while 
education,  in  its  turn,  has  created  a  demand  for  the  culti- 
vation of  the  moral  and  religious  nature  by  the  i^recepts 
and  examples  of  the  word  of  God.  It  is  to  the  honour  of 
the  American  Bible  Society  that  it  has  done  what  it  could, 
by  its  almost  unlimited  circulation  in  the  cheapest  forms, 
to  keep  the  Bible  in  the  schools,  where  the  children  of 
America  are  trained  for  citizenship,  and  to  frustrate  the 
ecclesiastico-political  conspiracy  which  now  boldly  aims 


HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE.  19 

not  only  to  drive  out  the  Bible  from  the  schools  of  which 
it  has  been  the  chief  creator,  but  to  destroy  the  public 
school  system  itself.  And  now  that  the  international  Sun- 
day school  lessons  have  become  almost  universal,  new  and 
continual  supplies  of  the  word  are  more  than  ever  required 
to  meet  these  auspicious  wants  of  the  age. 

When  this  Society  began  its  course  there  was  not  in  all 
the  world  a  sentence  of  Holy  Writ  printed  in 
raised  letters  for  the  blind.     It  is  only  thirty  Raised  Letters  for 

•^  "^  the  Blind. 

years  since  the  whole  New  Testament  was 
published,  in  four  volumes,  through  the  efforts  of  that  dis- 
tinguished philanthropist,  the  late  Dr.  Samuel  G.  Howe,  of 
Boston,  and  by  the  united  contributions  of  the  Massachu- 
setts and  New  York  Female  Bible  Societies,  supplemented 
by  the  aid  of  this  institution.  The  Psalms  were  issued  in 
1839,  and  the  entire  Bible  in  eight  and  sixteen  volumes, 
folio,  was  finally  i)ublished  in  1845.  Thousands  of  new 
readers,  of  a  class  which  was  previously  shut  out,  except 
by  hearing,  from  the  word  of  God,  have  been  developed 
by  this  munificent  work.  More  than  eleven  thousand 
volumes  have  been  issued,  most  of  which  have  been  given 
away  to  pupils  educated  in  the  asylums  of  thirty-one 
States  of  the  Union.  It  also  marks  the  beginning  of  a 
new  era  in  missions  that  we  have  conferred  this  priceless 
boon,  in  parts  of  the  Scriptures,  upon  the  sightless  readers 
of  Syria  and  Egypt  and  others  of  the  Arabic-speaking 
races. 

When  this  Society  was  formed,  the  world  was  at  peace, 
and  it  seemed  almost  as  if  the  last  battle  had  been  fought 
when  the  foremost  monarchs  and  princes  of  Europe  "  were 
gathering  their  fairest  honours  from  spreading  abroad  the 
oracles  of  the  Lord  our  God."  But  it  was  only  the  truce 
before  a  half  century  of  more  fearful  conflicts  . 
in  which  the  friends  of  the  Bible  found  new      '^^l  f!.^^°  *"°'' 

Soldiers. 

opportunities.    W^hile  the  Mexican  war  was  in 
progress,  the  word  of  God  was  freely  given  to  our  soldiers 
and  sailors,  and  to  Mexicans  and  Spaniards.    It  followed 
in  the  wake  of  the  armies,  and  one  result  of  that  work  was 


20  IIISTOEICAL    DISCOUBSE. 

the  Bible  agency  in  Mexico  and  a  sowing  of  the  seed  in 
that  hard  soil  which  has  never  ceased  in  the  i)ast  thirty 
years. 

When  the  Crimea  was  in  the  tiames  which  were  kindled 
at  the  gates  of  the  chnrch  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  and  were 
quenched  in  the  carnage  of  the  Malakoff,  our  devoted 
Agent  in  the  Levant  (the  late  Eev.  Chester  N.  Kighter), 
with  the  representatives  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Society, 
carried  the  word  of  life  to  English,  French,  Sardinian, 
German,  Italian,  Polish,  and  Eussiau  soldiers,  in  camps, 
prisons,  and  hospitals. 

And  when  at  length  our  own  great  agony  came  upon 
us  during  those  few  dreadful  years,  this  "  glorious  gospel 
of  the  blessed  God"  was  given,  almost  without  measure,  to 
every  army  and  fleet  that  could  be  reached.  Before  a 
battle  was  fought  the  Board  of  Managers  sounded  the 
trumpet  to  all  of  its  auxiliaries  and  friends,  entreating 
them  to  see  that  every  soldier  enlisted  within  their  bounds 
was  supplied  with  a  copy  of  the  Scriptures,  in  whole 
or  in  part,  and  encouraging  them  to  look  to  the  Parent 
Society  for  aid  to  supply  their  own  lack  in  this  service. 
From  that  moment  the  work  began  in  earnest.  The 
machinery  flew  with  unwonted  speed;  new  presses  were 
procured;  the  sewers  and  binders  wrought  with  nimble 
fingers;  and  the  precious  freight  hasted  over  railways, 
rivers,  lakes,  gulfs,  and  oceans.  At  one  period  the  produc- 
tion of  New  Testaments  was  nine  per  minute  for  every 
hour  of  the  daily  working  time  of  the  establishment.  In 
the  first  year,  the  military  and  naval  distri- 
Thc  chmtian     ^j^tiou   was    betwccu   650,000    and    700,000 

Commission.  '  ' 

volumes.  The  United  States  Christian  Com- 
mission, that  marvellous  combination  of  philanthropy  and 
the  gospel,  through  its  five  thousand  delegates,  distributed 
1,466,748  volumes  (valued  at  $179,824  90),  all  of  which 
were  donated  to  it  in  trust  for  the  army  and  navy.  At 
least  three  millions  of  volumes  were  distributed  among  the 
contending  forces,  of  which  not  less  than  five  hundred 
thousand  volumes  were  donated  and  given  personally  to 


HISTORICAL    DISCOURSE.  21 

Confederate  soldiers  within  their  own  lines  and  to  those 
who  were  prisoners  of  war.  And  the  total  issues  of  those 
four  years  were  5,084,279  volumes.  Whatever  else  was 
bound  by  the  stern  laws  of  war,  surely  it  was  not  "the 
word  of  God.'' 

As  soon  as  peace  was  restored,  the  Society  renewed  its 
work  in  the  South.  In  one  year  its  ten 
agents  were  busy  in  all  but  three  of  the  ^''"I^Jfti^'/ ^^' 
once  confederated  States.  The  next  year  the 
whole  field  was  reoccupied,  including  the  State  societies  of 
Maryland  and  Louisiana,  which  were  in  active  co-opera- 
tion with  the  Parent  Institution.  Scarcely  had  the  smoke 
of  the  last  battle  cleared  away,  when,  in  May,  1865,  the 
Managers  resolved  "  to  do  all  in  their  power  to  give  the 
Bible  to  the  whole  i)opulation  of  the  South,  at  the 
earliest  practicable  period  and  in  the  most  effective  way."* 

Connecting  this  with  the  Bible  work  of  the  war,  it 
is  not  boasting,  but  the  simple  truth,  to  say  that  no 
such  organized  system  of  Brble  distribution  was  ever 
before  accomplished  in  all  the  world  as  this  among  the 
contending  hosts  on  botli  sides  of  our  great  contlict,  and  in 
a  region  that  was  at  once  so  immense  and  so  prostrate. 
Nor  is  it  too  much  honour  for  the  word  of  God  to  claim 
that  this  distribution  was  in  the  highest  interests  of 
national  peace  and  unity  and  of  Christian  brotherhood, 
and  of  the  reunion  of  long  sundered  churches.  This  Cen- 
tennial year  would  fail  of  its  highest  aims  did  it  not 
strengthen  those  bonds  which  the  i^assions  of  war  could 
not  destroy,  and  which  ought  to  be  kept  in  a  peace  that 
can  never  be  broken. 

An   essential  part  of  this  great   movement  was  the 
supply  of  the  Freedmen  with  the  Scriptures. 
It  began  with  the  first  refugees  who  found  ^'"'iSLln/''' 
shelter  within  the  CTnion  military  lines,  then 
extended  to  the  coloured  troops,  and  gradually  spread  over 
the  Southern  States.    It  was  made  a  strict  condition  of  the 

*Annual  Report,  1865,  p.  41. 


22  HISTORICAL    DISCOUBSE. 

restoration  of  tlie  Bible  work  in  every  district  by  oar 
agents  and  auxiliaries,  and  in  grants  of  the  Scrijjtures  to 
missionary,  educational,  and  church  boards.  The  reports 
of  the  last  twelve  years  show  how  extensively  and  with 
what  charity  this  work  has  been  promoted.  The  Gospel 
by  John,  and  other  volumes,  have  been  specially  published 
in  large  print  for  adult  readers.  Large  donations  have 
been  cheerfully  made,  and  nothing  will  be  left  undone  to 
discharge  our  Trust  of  "the  oracles  of  God"  for  this  i)oor 
peoi)le,  whose  sudden  emancipation  and  civil  rights  de- 
mand all  that  Christian  education  and  the  morals  of  the 
Bible  can  do  to  fit  them  for  their  citizenship,  and  to 
save  them  from  ruin. 

There  have  been  three  general  efforts  made  to  supply 

the  whole  population  of  the  United  States  with  the  word 

of  God,  which  were  inaugurated  in    1829, 

The  whole  coim-  -j^g^g    ^^^^  -^ggg     rpt,g  jj^g^  was  the  thank- 

try  Canvass  ed.  ' 

offering  and  memorial  to  God  of  our  Jubilee 
year,  and  it  has  been  the  most  extensive  and  tliorough  and 
prolonged  of  the  Society's  national  works.  Within  the 
last  decade,  5,454,788  families  have  been  visited,  of  whom 
541,569  were  found  destitute,  and  376,257  were  supplied 
with  the  Scrii)tures.  This  never  ending  work  has  de- 
manded large  grants  and  patient  labour.  It  has  quick- 
ened the  Christian  conscience,  evoked  great  liberality, 
stimulated  religious  i:>atriotism,  and  promoted  Christian 
union  and  co-operation. 

But  beneath  all  its  statistics  and  many  incidents  lies 
the  historical  fact  that  a  nation's  destiny  is  more  power- 
fully shaped  by  its  religious  faith  and  condition  than  by 
all  other  causes  put  together.  Many  years  ago  a  great 
statesman,  then  Governor  of  New  York  and  afterward 
Secretary  of  State  throughout  our  civil  war,  said,  in  an 
anniversary  address  before  this  Society,  after  a  striking 
allusion  to  the  purposes  of  the  decennial  census  of  the 
United  States,  that  he  "  knew  not  how  long  a  republican 
government  could  flourish  among  a  people  who  had  not 
the  Bible.    The  experiment  had  never  been  tried ;  but  this 


HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE.  23 

he  did  know,  that  the  existing  government  of  this  country 
could  never  have  had  an  existence  but  for  the  Bible.  And 
further,  he  did  in  his  conscience  believe  that,  if  at  every 
decade  of  years  a  copy  of  the  Bible  should  be  fouud  in 
every  family  of  the  land,  its  republican  institutions  would 
be  perpetual."* 

The  reason  is  plain  enough.  The  right  of  self-govern- 
ment is  the  i>re-emiuent  idea  of  our  republi- 
can institutions  and  of  this  centenary  of  free-  indis^nsabie 
dom.  But  personal  self-government  is  essen- 
tial to  popular  government.  The  power  of  Protestant 
Christianity,  which  has  nursed  this  republic  from  its  infancy 
to  its  manhood,  is  in  its  appeal,  through  the  word  of  God, 
to  the  individual  conscience.  We  have  had  one  century  of 
republican  liberty  because  we  have  had  the  Bible  and  the 
Sabbath.  These  two  cannot  be  severed.  If  the  efforts  that 
are  now  making  to  destroy  the  Sabbath  and  its  divine  law 
should  be  successful,  the  flags  of  all  nations  that  decorate 
the  buildings  of  our  World's.  Exposition  would  droop  in 
shame  for  a  peox)le  who  have  not  the  virtue  to  maintain 
the  day  and  the  book  that  have  made  their  greatness.  If 
we  begin  this  second  century  by  trampling  the  Bible  and 
the  Sabbath  into  the  dust  of  our  Centennial  grounds,  it 
needs  no  prophet  to  foretell  how  soon  this  "government  of 
the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the  people,  would  perish 
from  the  earth."  Not  only  in  this  faith,  but  in  the  full 
belief  that  "the  gospel  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salva- 
tion to  every  one  that  believeth,"  it  is  a  question  of 
political  and  of  spiritual  life  or  death  whether  or  not 
this  people  shall  have  the  Bible.  Had  not  the  Reformation 
been  crushed  out  of  France  by  her  wicked  kings  and 
priests,  and  if  the  French  Bible  Society  which  was  formed 
in  London,  in  concert  with  Christian  men  in  Paris,  in 
1792,  could  have  Jiad  a  career  like  that  of  Great  Britain, 
she  would  have  had  a  better  history  than  that  of  her  later 
papal  and  atheistic  centuries.    But  it  was  too  late.    As 

*  Hon.  Wm.  H.  Seward,  1839. 


24  HISTORICAL    DISCOURSE. 

the  French  printer  who  had  been  engaged  by  this  Society 
wrote,  a  few  years  later,  "We  have  lived  in  times  which 
have  destroyed  everything,  overturned  everything,  and  all 
must  begin  afresh,"  And  the  money  which  was  raised 
for  France  furnished  English  Bibles  for  Ireland.* 

If  the  edict  of  Henry  the  Eighth,  which  forbade  the 
Bible  to  the  common  people  of  England,  had  prevailed 
until  now,  would  her  annals  have  been  better  than  those 
of  her  ante-biblical  times?  Would  these  United  States 
have  been  possible,  and  can  they  endure  another  century, 
without  the  word  of  God?  Let  history  furnish  the  sure 
reply. 

Second; — Our  Foreign  "FTorfc. 

What  have  we  done  for  the  ivorld  in  the  execution  of 
this  Trust? 

The  foreign  work  of  the  American  Bible  Society  be- 
gan with  its  beginning.  The  sijirifc  of  missions  is  in 
the  Book,  and  the  great  commission  involves  the  duty 
of  translating,  publishing,  and  distributing  the  Scriptures 
among  "  all  nations."  The  attention  of  the 
jYjr^^^agers  was  soon  directed  "  to  the  transla- 
tion of  the  Scriptures  into  the  Indian  languages  of  our 
country,  the  publication  of  the  Spanish  Kew  Testament, 
and  of  the  Scriptures  in  French."  There  was  a  singular 
propriety  in  this  selection  of  the  aborigines  of  America,  of 
the  nation  of  Columbus,  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  and  of 
that  generous  power  which  sent  us  her  fleets  and  armies 
and  her  La  Fayette,  to  aid  us  in  getting  our  indei)end- 
ence,  as  the  first  objects  of  our  Bible  work  beyond  our 
own  people.  With  this  movement,  too,  began  our  direct 
co-operation  with  American  missions  and  with  the  British 
and  Foreign  Bible  Society,  which  donated  the  stereotype 
plates  for  the  French  Bible. 

One  hundred  years  ago  the  modern  era  of  biblical 
translation  and  diffusion  had  not  even  dawned  upon  Ohris- 

*  Anderson's  Annals    of   the    English    Bible,   p.  469.     American 
edition. 


HISTORICAL    DISCOURSE.  25 

tian  lauds.  lu  the  year  1804  the  Bible  existed  only  in 
fifty  ancient  and  modern  languages.  In 
1875  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  ^°"c?uS°/  *^' 
reported  that  it  has  had  a  direct  or  indirect 
share  in  the  translation,  i)rinting,  and  distribution  of  the 
Scriptures  in  two  hundred  and  ten  languages  or  dialects, 
the  number  of  versions  thus  printed  being  two  hundred 
and  sixty-eight.  Tlie  American  Bible  Society  has  printed 
the  whole  Bible  or  jiarts  of  it  in  thirty-three  nciv  transla- 
tions, besides  publishing  it  in  twenty-three  others,  making 
together  fifty-six  ditt'crent  languages,  in  addition  to  its 
share  in  the  circulation  of  many  versions  published  by 
other  societies.  In  a  little  tract  which  it  has  just  issued, 
there  is  printed  in  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  differ- 
ent tongues  that  one  verse  which  is  the  epitome  of  the 
gospel  for  all  nations,  John  iii.  16 :  "  For  God  so  loved  the 
world,  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever 
believeth  in  him  should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting 
life."  It  was  a  grand  saying  of  a  devout  writer,  that 
"  there  are  many  languages  of  mortals ;  there  is  but  one  of 
the  immortals."  And  as  one  looks  into  this  little  book,  it 
seems  as  if  the  tongues  which  were  confounded  at  Babel 
were  already  blending  in  the  infinite  harmonies  of  this  hal- 
lelujah chorus  of  the  Messiah. 

In  the  pavilion  erected  by  the  Pennsylvania  Bible 
Society  on  the  grounds  of  the  Centennial  Exhibition,  the 
Scriptures  are  offered  for  sale  and  gift  in  one  hundred 
and  four  languages,  many  of  which  are  spoken  or  read 
by  exhibitors  and  visiters  from  many  lands. 

The  book-case  which  illustrates  the  work  of  the 
American  and  of  the  British  and  Foreign 
Bible  Societies  in  the  Exposition  is  filled  '^'^ExToIitlon.''" 
with  specimens  of  the  Scriptures  in  two  hun- 
dred languages  and  dialects  of  the  world.  On  one  shelf  is 
a  series  of  bi-lingual  volumes,  containing,  in  parallel  col- 
umns, the  English  with  the  German,  Spanish,  French, 
Welsh,  Dutch,  Portuguese,  and  Hawaiian  languages.  Do 
they  not  suggest  the  cloven  tongues  of  Pentecost,  and  the 


26  HISTORICAL    DISCOURSE. 

relations  of  our  English  speecli  to  all  other  speech  of  men 
in  the  world's  religions  progress  f  Three  shelves  are  filled 
with  the  word  in  the  languages  of  Europe — God's  answer 
to  the  prayer  of  that  " man  of  Macedonia"  whom  Paul,  in 
the  vision,  heard  crying  out  for  the  whole  continent, 
"  Come  over  and  help  us."  Another  interesting  set  of 
volumes  tells  what  Christians  have  done  to  repay  the  chil- 
dren of  Abraham,  in  books  specially  prei)ared  for  their  use, 
for  those  "oracles  of  God"  which  we  Gentiles  have  received 
from  them  comjilete  and  uncorrupted.  Among  them  are 
the  Old  Testament  in  English,  without  note  or  comment, 
headings  or  references,  and  the  Hebrew-Spanish  Bible  of 
Dr.  Schauffler. 

These  open  pages  are  in  the  soft- toned  tongues  of 
the  Isles  of  the  Pacific,  which  for  more  than  eighteen 
centuries  had  waited  for  God's  law.  That  goodly  line 
of  books  with  their  singular  intermixture  of  labials, 
liquids,  consonants,  and  vowels,  tells  us  of  "Ethiopia 
stretching  forth  her  hands  unto  God."  These  few  vol- 
umes show  what  the  largest  Christian  monarchy  and  the 
largest  Christian  republic,  with  the  Atlantic  rolling  be- 
tween them,  have  contributed  to  the  largest  empire  of  the 
globe,  stretching  across  two  continents,  from  the  Eeval- 
Esthonians  on  the  Baltic  sea-line  to  the  modern  Euss 
dwellers  on  the  Amoor,  in  Eastern  Siberia.  "  And  these 
from  the  land  of  Sinim,"  in  serried  columns,  tell  what 
has  been  done  for  China's  four  hundred  millions,  in  the 
early  versions  of  Morrison  and  Marshman,  in  the  later 
revisions  of  Bridgman  and  Culbertson  and  of  the  Board 
of  Revisers,  and  in  the  Mandarin  Colloquial,  of  which 
the  New  Testament  has  been  translated  by  English  and 
American  missionaries,  and  the  entire  Old  Testament  has 
just  been  completed,  after  fifteen  years  of  labour,  by  the 
Eev.  Dr.  Schereschewsky,  of  the  American  Episcopal  Mis- 
sion, and  under  the  special  patronage  of  this  Society.  The 
Manchou,  the  Mongolian,  the  Mandarin,  the  Eomanized 
Colloquial  (or  the  Chinese  in  Eoman  letters),  and  the  vary- 
ing dialects  of  the  great  seaports  and  provincial  capitals 


HISTORICAL    DISCOURSE.  27 

are  there.  Here,  again,  are  the  silent  witnesses  for  the 
word  in  the  multifarious  languages  of  India,  Burmah, 
Slam,  and  other  Asiatic  realms  upon  which  "  the  true  light 
now  shineth." 

One  other  shelf  is  occupied  with  translations  made  in 
eleven  distinct  languages  for  the  Indians  of  North  Amer- 
ica. Of  these  versions  this  f^ociety  has  published  nine, 
including  that  which  is  printed  in  the  marvellous  Cherokee 
character,  which  was  invented  by  one  of  that  nation. 
AVhat  if,  in  process  of  time,  these  Indian  Scriptures  should 
become  as  useless  to  living  men  as  John  Eliot's  great 
Bible,  which  he  made  for  his  little  Natick  tribe  ?  Even 
then  they  will  prove  our  fidelity  to  our  trust;  they 
will  have  done  their  blessed  work  for  the  red  men;  and 
they  will  but  anticipate  by  a  few  ages  the  fate  of  every 
copy  of  the  Bible  which  shall  be  in  the  world  in  that  day 
when  "  the  earth  also  and  the  works  that  are  therein  shall 
be  burnt  up." 

Ten  years  ag'o,  at  the  Jubilee  meeting  of  this  Society, 
it  was  stated  hy  the  then  senior  Secretary  of  r^^^  ^-^^^^  amou" 
the  American   Board  of  Commissioners  for  the 

Foreign  Missions  (Eev.  Eufus  Anderson,  Unevangeiized. 
D.D.),  that  during  the  preceding  half  century  "  the  entire 
Bible  had  been  translated  into  thirty-nine  languages 
outside  of  Christendom,  embracing  nearly  all  the  more 
extensive  and  important;  and  the  New  Testament  into 
thirty-five  other  tongues;  and  portions  of  the  Scriptures 
into  still  forty-eight  others ; — making  one  hundred  and 
twenty-two  languages  in  the  great  field  of  Christian  mis- 
sions that  have  been  enriched  and  ennobled  with  portions 
of  the  word  of  God  since  the  American  Bible  Society  com- 
menced its  operations.  And  not  a  few  of  these  had  to  be 
reduced  to  a  written  form.'- 

Of  these  actual  additions  to  the  written  languages  of 
the  world,  the  Hawaiian  Scriptures  may  be 

.^nl.^  ai  i.    xi        Hawaiian  Bible. 

given  the  first  place,  as  they  represent  the 

entire  system  of  the  vernacular  tongues  of  the  Pacific. 

Some  of  the  missionaries  are  yet  living  who  helped  to  give 


28  HISTORICAL    DISCOURSE. 

the  Hawaiians  an  alphabet  and  a  written  literature  with. 
Christian  civilization  and  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  It 
has  been  the  privilege  of  this  Society  to  furnish  them  with 
the  whole  Bible  in  family  and  other  forms,  and  to  aid  the 
Hawaiian  Board  of  Missions  in  sending  the  word  of  God 
to  the  far  distant  Micronesiau  group  in  four  distinct 
languages. 

Of  the  entire  issues  of  Bible  societies  since  1804,  it  is 
safe  to  say  that  at  least  ten  millions  of  copies  of  the  word,  in 

whole  or  in  parts,  have  been  distributed  among 
^^*Wo°k*^^    the  unevangelized  nations.    In  consequence 

of  its  co-operation  with  missionary  socie- 
ties, the  foreign  distribution  of  this  Society  for  nearly 
fifty  years  was  not  presented  in  statistics,  which  could 
not  then  be  readily  procured.  But  in  the  last  thirteen 
years  alone  it  has  circulated  2,891,010  copies.  Its  whole 
expenditure  upon  this  part  of  its  work  has  been  $1,650,034; 
and  within  the  last  decade  $786,437  86,  which  is  nearly 
equal  to  the  entire  cost  of  its  foreign  work  in  its  first  half 
century.  Was  ever  so  grand  a  work  accomplished  at  a  cost 
so  small  ?  Is  not  this  progress  of  the  Bible  among  the 
nations  to  be  reckoned  among  the  wonders  of  the  century  ? 
In  this  service  the  Society  has  had  the  zealous  co-opera- 
tion of  missionary   societies  and  of  missionary  scholars 

who  were  as  manifestly  raised  up  for  it  as 
^'TevisTs'''''^     Moses  and  Paul  were  predestined  to  fulfil 

their  high  callings.  The  hallowed  names  of 
Drs.  Goodell,  Eli  Smith,  Eiggs,  Schauffler,  and  Van  Dyck, 
in  the  Turkish  empire,  and  of  their  co-labourers  in  all  quar- 
ters of  the  globe,  have  already  taken  rank  with  those  of 
Luther,  Diodati,  Valera,  and  De  Sacy  on  the  Continent ;  of 
Wickliffe,  Tyndale,  and  the  later  translators  of  our  English 
version;  and  of  Carey,  Morrison,  Judson,  and  their  com- 
peers in  farther  Asia,  who  have  given  the  word  of  God  to 
tribes  and  nations  and  races  of  mankind.  Our  own  sympa- 
thies kindle  with  the  enthusiasm  of  Dr.  Goodell  in  finish- 
ing his  translation  of  the  Old  Testament  into  the  Armeuo- 
Turkish,  when  he  "corrected  the  last  verse"  with  shoutings, 


HISTORICAL    DISCOURSE.  29 

"  Grace,  grace  unto  it ! "  And  again,  when  he  adds,  "  At 
the  bottom  of  the  page  I  wrote,  '  Bless  the  Lord,  O  my 
soul,  and  forget  not  all  his  benefits.'  I  -then  arose  and 
shut  up  all  the  books  that  have  been  lying  open  before  me 
these  many  years,  and  fell  on  my  knees  to  '  give  thanks 
unto  the  name  of  the  Lord,  who  hath  not  dealt  with  us 
after  our  sins;'  who  hath  given  us  his  blessed  word  to  be 
a  lamp  unto  our  feet,  and  whose  wondrous  love  permits  us 
to  hold  it  up  '  to  lighten  every  man  that  cometh  into  the 
world;  " 

From  the  Bible  House  at  Constantinople,  that  Pharos 
of  the  Orient,  "  the  true  light"  is  now  shining 
forth  in  all  the   languages  spoken   in   that    ^^ibic  iiousc  at 

®       ®  '-  Coustantinople. 

"polyglot  city."  Missionaries  and  colporteurs 
are  carrying  it  into  the  ijrovinces  of  European  and  Asiatic 
Turkey,  to  Greece  and  the  islands  of  the  ^Egean  Sea, 
among  the  mountains  of  Syria,  over  the  plains  of  Persia, 
and  up  and  down  the  Danube  and  the  Nile.  Turks  and 
Egyptians,  Armenians,  Nestorians,  Syrians,  Bulgarians, 
Persians,  Greeks,  Copts,  Arabs,  and  Jews  read  in  their 
"  own  tongues  the  wonderful  works  of  God." 

The  most  conspicuous  biblical  enterprise  ever  under- 
taken by  this  Society  for  another  race  of 
men  is  the  Arabic  Bible,  which  occupied  its 
translators.  Dr.  Eli  Smith,  who  began  it,  until  his  decease, 
and  Dr.  Cornelius  V.  A.  Van  Dyck,  and  their  co-labourers 
in  its  revision,  for  sixteen  years,  and  which,  in  its  various 
editions,  has  received  the  highest  critical  commendations  of 
the  most  eminent  Arabic  scholars,  both  Mussulman  and 
Christian.  Finished  just  at  the  close  of  the  late  war,  and  its 
publication  begun  at  the  beginning  of  our  Jubilee  year,  it 
was  our  i)eace  offering  and  thank  offering  unto  God  for  the 
salvation  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  millions  of  the  world 
who  siDcak  that  rich  and  difficult  tongue.  It  is  going  forth 
daily  alongside  of  the  Koran  of  Mohammed,  challenging 
criticism  from  the  learned  and  disputing  the  dominion  of 
that  narrow,  intolerant,  exclusive  book  of  one  man's  brain, 
with  its  infinite  variety  and  unity  of  truths,  with  its  divine 


30  HISTORICAL    DISCOURSE. 

cliarity,  and  its  voices  of  prophets  and  kings,  evangelists 
and  apostles,  and  with  "  the  testimony  of  Jesus  [which]  is 
the  spirit  of  iDrophecy." 

I  pause  here  to  note  one  noble  proof  of  the  present 
freedom  of  the  word  of  God  and  of  the  bonds  of  union  be- 
tween the  two  great  Bible  societies  of  the 

eciprociy.    ^^j^jj^    When  the  electrotype  plates  of  this 

Arabic  Bible  were  finished,  in  1866,  the  Board  of  Managers 
signalized  the  event  by  furnishing  to  the  British  and  For- 
eign Bible  Society,  without  charge,  duplicate  plates  of  the 
various  editions  that  were  in  course  of  publication.  This 
gift  w^as  officially  "  accompanied  by  the  largest  liberty  for 
the  free  and  unrestrained  use  of  these  plates,  with  their 
own  imprint,  conditional  only  that  no  alteration  be  made 
in  the  plates  without  the  consent  of  this  Society."  In  1867 
the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  reciprocated  this 
action,  granting  to  its  American  sister  duplicate  plates  of 
all  of  its  vo welled  editions  of  the  same  great  work. 

That  Bible  House  on  the  Bosphorus  and  that  printing 
house  at  Beirut  will  yet  be  more  than  a  match  for  the 
Mosque  of  St.  Sophia  and  the  Church  of  the 
ar  ey.  jj^j^  Sei)ulchre.  The  regime  of  the  harem 
cannot  always  withstand  the  influences  of  the  Christian 
girls'  school  of  Bebek  and  the  biblical  training  of  young 
men  at  B,obert  College.  Every  little  mission  church  that 
now  exists  in  Turkey,  with  the  Bible  for  its  oracle,  has  in 
it  the  germs  of  a  Christian  republic.  And  Christianity 
lives  there  by  that  divine  charter  which  will  outlast  "  the 
sick  man's"  despotism  and  the  bloody  outbreaks  of  Moslem 
frenzy.* 

A  learned  Turk  said  not  long  ago  to  an  eminent  Chris- 
tian physician  in  Constantinople,  "  We  do  not  fear  the 

*  Is  it  not  a  significant  fact,  announced  by  the  Grand  Vizier  to 
the  world,  that  the  late  Sultan  has  just  been  "dethroned  by  the  uni- 
versal will  of  the  people?  "  Who  knows  to  what  extent  that  "  voice 
of  the  people  is  the  voice  of  God,"  saying,  "  I  will  overturn,  overturn, 
overturn  it;  and  it  shall  be  no  more,  until  he  come  whose  right  it  is; 
and  I  will  give  it  him  ?  " — (Ezekiel  xxi.  27.) 


HISTORICAL   DISCOURSE.  31 

Latin  Church  with  its  images,  nor  the  Greek  Church  with 
its  pictures  and  its  ungainly  and  empty  forms.  These  can 
do  nothing  to  shake  the  hold  which  the  Moslem  faith  has 
of  the  East.  But  we  do  fear,  because  we  resi)oct,  your 
simi^le  Protestant  worship  of  God  without  any  material 
representation  or  medium ;  and  we  dread  the  power  and 
prevalence  of  your  gospel,  which  presents  God  as  love."  * 

The  latest  new  translation  of  the  Bible  for  a  people 
who  have  never  before  had  it,  is  now  pro- 

T  •       T  14  •  •      •  .  Bible  in  Japan. 

ceeding  in  Japan,  by  American  missionaries, 
under  the  patronage  of  this  Society.  Only  the  four  gos- 
pels and  the  Epistle  to  the  Eomans  are  as  yet  in  circula- 
tion. The  special  interest  of  this  work  is  in  the  fact 
that  it  is  for  an  empire  which  has  never  cultivated  its 
own  language  and  literature,  and  which  is  making  almost 
incredible  advances  in  the  arts,  learning,  and  movements 
of  modern  civilization,  to  which  its  doors  were  opened 
within  a  quarter  of  a  century.  It  is  the  aim  of  the  trans- 
lators to  give  the  Japanese  a  faithful  version  of  the  word 
of  God,  and  also  to  make  it  a  standard  of  their  lan- 
guage, as  our  authorized  version  has  long  been  for  the 
English-speaking  race.  It  is  the  precious  seed-time  of  an 
awakening  people  in  the  dawn  of  a  new  civilization  and  of 
a  new  faith.  Twenty-five  years  hence  the  Bible  of  Japan 
may  be  "  the  Book  of  books  "  for  a  nation  which  has  just 
now,  by  imperial  authority,  adopted  the  Christian  Sabbath 
as  its  weekly  rest-day. 

For  many  reasons,  such  as  the  difficulty  of  translation 
into  heathen  tongues,  the  opposition  of  rulers 

Proffress 

and  priests,  and  the  power  of  ignorance  and 
superstition,  the  progress  of  the  Bible  in  Pagan  lands  is 
slow  at  first,  but  when  it  gets  headway  it  rushes  like  a  tor- 
rent over  all  barriers.  The  English  East  India  Company, 
in  the  days  of  Carey  and  Marshman  and  Judson,  was  as 
intolerant  of  missions  as  the  Sultan.  The  government  per- 
secuted the  native  converts  in  Burmah,  and  drove  out  the 

*  Thompsou's  Holy  Land,  p.  358. 


32  HISTORICAL    DISCOUESE. 

missionaries.  It  tolerated  every  form  of  religion  but  the 
Christianity  of  the  Bible ;  and  it  even  paid  annual  stipends 
from  its  treasury  for  the  maintenance  of  idolatry.  It  pro- 
tected Juggernaut,  and  it  put  the  Cross  under  its  ban. 
To-day  the  East  India  Company  lives  only  in  history,  and 
Christianity  is  rapidly  marching  on  to  the  conquest  of 
India.* 

Facts  like  these  make  their  own  commentary.  We 
have  only  to  remember  the  obstructions,  persecutions,  and 
martyrdoms  through  which  our  own  Bible  has  reached  its 
present  power,  to  show  what  the  enduring  word  shall  yet  • 

*  A  striking  corroboration  of  these  facts  has  been  received,  while 
this  discourse  was  passing  through  the  press,  in  the  following  extract 
from  a  letter  of  Sir  Bartle  Frere,  who  accompanied  the  Prince  of 
Wales  during  his  late  tour  through  India.  It  was  read  by  the  Earl  of 
Shaftesbury  at  the  last  anniversary  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible 
Society,  of  which  he  is  the  President,  and  is  worthy  of  special  note  as 
a  "sign  of  the  times."  Under  date  of  May  3,  1876,  this  eminent 
civilian  Avrites : 

"  At  dilTerent  places,  during  his  royal  highness's  tour,  the  prince 
received  from  various  bodies  copies  of  translations  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures into,  I  believe,  no  less  than  eleven  languages,  and  in,  I  think,  no 
less  than  nine  cases  the  translations  comprised  the  whole  Bible ;  and 
some  of  the  most  important  portions  of  both  Testaments  were  pre- 
sented, which  had  been  translated  into  nine  other  languages  in  which 
no  complete  translation  of  the  whole  Bible  had  yet  been  finished. 
This  may  afford  some  idea  of  the  number  of  readers  in  India  to  whom 
the  Holy  Scriptures  are  now  accessible  in  their  own  Indian  dialect ; 
and  when  I  mention  that  of  all  these  versions  four  only  were,  I  believe, 
complete  when  I  first  went  to  India,  forty-two  years  ago,  we  may  have 
some  idea  of  the  great  present  activity  of  the  Society's  agents,  in 
a  great  number  of  Missions,  scattered  through  such  a  number  of 
nations  speaking  so  many  different  dialects. 

"  Then,  as  to  the  effect  produced,  apart  from  direct  and  entire  con- 
versions from  other  religions  to  Christianity,  I  may  mention  the  fact, 
which  struck  me  greatly,  that  I  was  assured  from  many  quarters  that 
many  thousands  of  Hindoos,  who  do  not  make  any  profession  of  Chris- 
tianity, habitually  use  books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  as  their 
models  in  prayer  and  their  standards  of  morality.  I  need  not  trouble  you 
with  comments  on  the  fact,  but  I  am  sure  that  all  friends  of  the  Bible 
Society  will  rejoice  to  think  that  the  devotional  portions  of  the  Bible, 
and  the  moral  teachings  of  our  Lord  and  his  apostles,  are  largely  read 
and  deeply  thought  on  by  great  bodies  of  their  fellow-subjects  who  are 
still  in  search  of  a  rule  of  life.    Believe  me,  my  dear  sir, 

"  Very  faithfully  yours,        "  H.  E.  Bartle  Frere." 


HISTORICAL    DISCOURSE.  33 

accomplish  in  other  lands.    "  The  zeal  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts 
shall  perform  it." 

It  is  an  axiom  in  history  that  "  a  religion  that  does  not 
propagate  itself  and  its  sacred  books,  is  either  dying  or 
dead."  But  there  is  not  another  religion  among  men  that 
has  vitality  enough  to  translate  and  publish  its  sacred 
books  for  all  nations.  Does  any  one  in  his  senses  believe 
that  such  an  enterprise  as  that  of  our  Arabic  Bible  could 
ever  be  projected  by  the  believers  in  the  Koran  or  the 
Vedas,  to  convert  the  world  to  Islamism  or  to  Buddhism  ? 

Whatever  modern  scholars  may  make  out  of  the  new 
science  of  comparative  religions,  it  still  remains  true  that 
a  nation  cannot,  rise  above  its  gods,  its  worship,  and  its 
so-called  "  Scriptiu-es."  One  of  our  most  eloquent  orators 
has  concisely  put  the  argument  into  this  striking  form, 
and  I  quote  him,  in  substance,  because  he  is  not  a  clergy- 
man but  a  secular  agitator  and  reformer :  *  "  The  answer 
to  the  Shasters  is  India;  the  answer  to  Confucianism  is 
China;  the  answer  to  the  Koran  is  Turkey ;  the  answer  to 
the  Bible  is  the  Christian  civilization  of  Protestant  Europe 
and  America."  We  may  add,  that  the  answer  to  Eoman- 
ism  is  Spain  and  Mexico ;  and  the  answer  to  Atheism  is 
the  Eeign  of  Terror  in  France  and  the  Commune  of  Paris 
in  her  last  siege.  "  Where  there  is  no  vision,  the  people 
perish." — (Prov.  xxix.  18.) 

It  is  the  shame  and  the  doom  of  the  Eoman  Catholic 
missions,  that  they  have  never  given  the  ro^,^  cathoiic 
Bible  to  any  heathen  nation  to  which  they  and  Protestant 
have  carried  the  Breviary  and  the  Catechism,  Missions. 
and  the  Lives  of  the  Saints,  images  and  holy  water,  the 
mass  and  the  crucifix.  As  Boileau  said,  "  They  have 
lengthened  the  creed  and  shortened  the  decalogue."  The 
late  Cardinal  Wiseman,  in  his  famous  Lectures  on  Eoman 
Catholic  and  Protestant  Missions,  declared  of  the  latter, 
"  that  the  blessing  of  heaven  is  not  upon  the  work,  nor  his 
approbation  upon  the  principle — the  all-sufficiency  of  the 

*  Wendell  Phillips. 

3 


34  HISTORICAL    DISCOURSE. 

written  word."  But  it  is  the  glory  of  Protestant  Christian- 
ity in  this  missionary  era,  that  it  has  already  translated, 
printed,  and  circulated  the  Scriptures,  without  note  or  com- 
ment, in  so  many  languages,  and  has  put  them  in  such 
numbers  into  the  hands  of  the  people  of  the  earth,  that 
the  day  has  long  since  passed  when  the  Bible  could  be 
either  suppressed,  or  destroyed,  or  effectually  hindered  by 
persecuting  kings,  or  i)riesthoods,  or  scoffers.  Pio  Nono 
himself,  like  Bunyan's  giant  in  the  cave,  looks  helplessly 
from  the  windows  of  the  Vatican  at  the  modest  sign  over 
the  door  of  the  Bible  Society's  depot ;  and  the  British  and 
Foreign  Bible  Society  has  lately  held  a  public  meeting 
in  Eome,  unmolested,  under  the  shadow  of  St.  Peter's. 
"The  Bible,"  said  the  illustrious  Guizot,  "has  survived, 
and  will  ever  triumphantly  survive,  human  criticism,  and 
Bible  societies  are  but  the  instruments  of  the  divine 
action,  which  it  is  not  in  the  power  of  man  to  baffle 
or  disturb."  The  Reformation  in  Catholic  Europe  was 
checked  by  the  fact  that  "the  word  of  God  was  bound" 
in  those  countries.  It  never  reached  the  common  people, 
as  it  did  in  Germany  and  the  British  isles.  The  hopes  of 
Christianity  for  all  papal,  pagan,  and  Moslem  nations  are 
inseparable  from  their  possession  of  the  word  of  the  Lord 
by  their  people  in  their  own  homes. 

CONCLUSION. 

This,  then,  is  the  "high  calling"  of  this  Society — "to 
encourage  a  wider  circulation  of  the  Scriptures  without 
note  or  comment,"  in  our  own  country  and  in  all  the 
world.  God  has  committed  his  "oracles"  chiefly  to  the 
trust  of  the  two  foremost  colonizing,  commercial,  Protest- 
ant, evangelizing  nations  of  the  globe.  The  language 
which  is  most  nearly  the  universal  medium  of  interna- 
tional intercourse  is  that  whose  standard  of  purity  and  of 
power  has  been  fixed  by  our  English  Bible.  The  great 
mechanical  forces  of  modern  civilization,  coal,  steam,  elec- 
tricity, and  the  printing  press,  are  principally  Protestant. 


HISTORICAL    DISCOURSE.  35 

Civil  and  religious  liberty  are  distinctively  and  almost 
only  Protestant.  The  grandest  missionary  enterprises  of 
the  age  are  Protestant.  The  moral  forces  which  are 
upheaving  the  Turkish  empire,  China  and  Japan,  and 
that  have  made  Australia  and  New  Zealand  and  the  Sand- 
wich Islands  Christian  are  Protestant.  The  power  that 
has  made  Victoria  "Empress  of  India"  is  Protestant. 
And,  as  Chillingworth  said,  "The  Bible,  and  the  Bible 
alone,  is  the  religion  of  Protestants." 

In  this  work  of  preparing  and  sending  forth  the  pure 
word  of  the  Lord  to  all  nations,  all  Protestants  stand  upon 
common  ground.  "The  Lord  gave  the  word:  great  was 
the  company  of  those  that  published  it." — (Psalm  Ixviii.  11.) 
It  is  one  of  the  strongest  visible  bonds  of  union  between 
all  who  love  the  Bible.  It  is  one  form  of  the  answer  to 
the  prayer  of  Jesus,  "  That  they  all  may  be  one ;  as  thou, 
Father,  art  in  me,  and  I  in  thee,  that  they  also  may  be 
one  in  us :  that  the  world  may  believe  that  thou  hast  sent 
me." — (John  xvii.  21.)  All  minor  diflferences  are  lost  in  the 
oneness  and  grandeur  of  this  service,  in  the  i^resence  of  the 
abominations  of  the  heathen  world.  The  most  brilliant  of 
modern  historians,  Lord  Macaulay,  felt  this  when,  after  his 
return  from  India,  he  declared,  "  I  have  lived  too  long  in  a 
country  where  the  people  worshij)  cows  to  think  much  of 
the  differences  which  part  Christians  from  Christians." 
"  Where  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is,  there  is  liberty"  (2  Cor. 
iii.  17),  and  there,  too,  and  there  only,  is  "  the  unity  of  the 
Spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace." — (Eph.  iv.  3.) 

Never  have  the  friends  of  the  Bible  had  less  to  fear, 
or  more  to  encourage  them,  than  at  this  good  hour.  No 
benevolent  institution  has  a  more  powerful  hold  upon  the 
Christian  people  of  this  country  than  this  American  Bible 
Society.  The  dead  and  the  living  have  honoured  it  with 
their  ceaseless  services,  gifts,  and  prayers.  In  war  and  in 
peace,  in  financial  panics,  and  amid  prostrate  industries, 
Providence  has  led  its  oflBcers  and  managers  "by  a  way 
that  they  knew  not."  Nothing  but  criminal  neglect  and 
treason  to  its  trust  can  forfeit  the  confidence  which  it  has 


36  HISTORICAL    DISCOUBSE. 

eDJoyed  for  tlireescore  years.  And  whenever  some  new 
and  greater  biblical  enterprise  shall  be  undertaken,  the 
past  may  show  us  how  it  will  be  sustained  in  the  future. 

It  was  fabled  of  one  of  the  classic  oracles,  that  whoever 
spent  a  single  night  amid  the  terrific  visions  of  the  Cave 
of  Trophonius  never  smiled  again.  ISTo  such  horrors  min- 
gle with  the  memories  and  forecasts  of  our  national  cente- 
nary. These  "  lively  "  "  oracles  of  God  "  have  brought  our 
people  to  the  cross  of  him  who  "hath  borne  our  griefs 
and  carried  our  sorrows."  Wherever  we  may  scatter  them, 
and  in  whatever  tongue,  "  the  wilderness  and  the  solitary 
place  shall  be  glad  for  them,  and  the  desert  shall  rejoice 
and  blossom  as  the  rose."  Let  this  work  still  go  on,  with 
ever  growing  power,  to  the  music  of  David's  Psalms, 
of  Bethlehem's  angels,  and  of  the  Kew  Jerusalem.  Let 
Christian  America,  "  exalted  to  heaven "  by  this  Bible, 
send  forth  the  testimony  of  Jesus,  which  is  "the  Spirit 
of  prophecy,"  until 

"  Arabia's  desert  ranger 

To  him  shall  bow  the  knee, 
And  Ethiopian  stranger 
His  glory  come  and  see." 

For  Christ  and  his  kingdom,  for  his  cross  and  his 
crown,  for  our  homes  and  our  schools,  for  our  churches 
and  our  charities,  for  our  laws  and  our  liberties,  for  our 
country  and  the  world,  let  us  "hold  forth  the  word  of 
life"  until  "the  earth  shall  be  filled  with  the  knowledge 
of  the  glory  of  the  Lord,  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea." 
— (Hab.  ii.  14.) 


-f^PHlET  BINDER 

-       -    Syrociisa,  N.    Y. 

rrr  i'ockion,  coi.-f. 


\ 


BS447  .T24 

Our  treasure  and  our  trust,  or,  The 

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